Fit and Tasty...

Every once in a while I crave a good German meal.  I guess because I'm about 51% German heritage that makes sense. 

So this week I decided to make a nice kielbasa with sauerkraut meal.  Reminds me of my mother's mother. 

Luckily, I found a nice turkey kielbasa at Aldi's on my shopping trip.

It was German week, so there were all kinds of German products on sale.  Including a big jar of sauerkraut.  I paired my German specialties with some spinach that I sautéed in chicken broth, and some baby carrots, all of which were purchased at Aldi's. 

Here's the finished product. 

 

 

 

I was skeptical about the taste of the kielbasa because I had never tried the Fit & Active brand before.  But it looked good, smelled good and even tasted good after I cooked it in the sauerkraut.  Normally, when I buy heat and eat foods, I get bombarded with salt, but this product was definitely not overly salty.  It had a crisp bite to the meat and it wasn't too dry or too wet.  I was impressed with this product and will definitely purchase it again. 

 

 

 

Here's the cost breakdown for the meal:

 

Total Cost                              My Meal Cost

 

Kielbasa  $ 2.39                     $0.60

 

Sauerkraut  $1.69                   $0.22

 

Spinach       $1.79                   $0.90

 

Chicken Broth $0.49               $0.25

 

Carrots        $0.49                  $0.10

 

 

TOTALS:  $6.85                     $2.07

 

 

 

I cooked the meal intending to feed 4 of my 5 family members. (I have an Autistic son who only eats chicken nuggets, pizza, eggs and a few other things, so I generally don't factor him into my count for meals)  Unfortunately, that night 3 of the four of us who were going to eat were sick.  So I had the meal alone, giving myself a little bit extra, and saving about half for leftovers.  Numbers are approximate, but again, for $6.85 I could conceivably feed a family of 4 a meal that consisted of a healthy protein and 3 vegetables. 

 

I've also found a new, less expensive version of a product a normally buy that has less of the processed meat taste.   It's a win win in my book.

 

Stay tuned!  I've got more recipes, more product reviews and more tips for shopping at Aldi's coming up. 

 

You can find me at twitter, @camp3082 and on facebook, Toni Smith.  Thanks for reading!



 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 1...

Today was day one of eating on the challenge.  Here was our menu for the day:

Breakfast

Cereal with Milk

Lunch

Egg Salad sandwich

½ banana

Dinner

Hot Dog Noodle Soup

 

Here’s how I made the soup:

Ingredients

2 packages Ramen Noodles, beef flavor

1 cup canned peas

4 Turkey hot dogs, sliced

Directions

Prepare noodles according to package directions.  Add hot dogs and peas and allow to simmer until warm.

Thoughts for the day

I did not eat breakfast today, but the kids and my husband did.  They ate their normal breakfast, so it wasn’t much of a switch.

For lunch, it was odd not to have side dishes.  Normally, we’ll have some canned pineapple or peaches as well as some sort of treat like chips.  Today we just had the sandwich and a half of a banana.  It felt odd, but I ate slow and drank a lot of water to keep me full. 

The dinner menu did not go over so well.  My daughter had two bowls, but she was still hungry.  My 6 year old did not eat the soup, and was scrounging around for food while my husband put my other son to bed.  My 3 year old son did NOT eat dinner.  He’s a picky eater and will only eat certain things.  I’ve been instructed, in the past, by my pediatrician and his service providers that if he skips a meal here and there, he will be OK.  That he will eat when hungry.  So don’t think I am starving him on purpose, he chose not to eat. 

My husband has already said that the experiment is over.  But I’m going to try to stick it out till the end of the five days.  I think we can make it.  And we are getting the word out about this project. 

Remember to check my updates on twitter @camp3082. 

Have a great evening!